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Richard Krajicek

Country (sports)	Netherlands
Residence	Muiderberg, Netherlands
Height	1.95 m (6 ft 5 in)
Turned pro	1989
Retired	2003
Plays	Right-handed
Prize money	$10,077,425
Singles
Career record	411–219
Career titles	17
Highest ranking	4 (29 March 1999)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	SF (1992)
French Open	SF (1993)
Wimbledon	W (1996)
US Open	QF (1997, 1999, 2000)
Doubles
Career record	77–60
Career titles	3
Highest ranking	45 (26 July 1993)
Last updated on: 31 May 2007.

Richard Peter Stanislav Krajicek (born 6 December 1971) is a Dutch former professional tennis player. In 1996 he won the men's singles title at Wimbledon, to date the only Dutch player to do so; in the quarter-finals of that tournament he defeated Pete Sampras, Sampras' only singles defeat at Wimbledon between 1993 and 2000. Since 2004 he has been the tournament director of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam. He is also the author of various sportsbooks.

Personal life

Richard Krajicek was born on 6 December 1971, in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. He is the son of Czech immigrants.

His half sister Michaëlla Krajicek is also a professional tennis player.

In 1999, Krajicek married model, actress and writer Daphne Deckers.

Career

Richard Krajicek began playing tennis at the age of four. As a youngster he won the Dutch 12-under and 14-under National Championships twice each. He turned professional in 1989, and in 1991 won his first top-level singles title at Hong Kong, and his first tour doubles title in Hilversum.

In 1992, the 6 ft 5 inch Dutchman reached his first Grand Slam semi-final at the Australian Open, but then had to withdraw from his semi-final match due to a shoulder injury. The following year, he reached the semi-finals at the French Open where he lost in four sets to the defending champion Jim Courier. Further in 1992, Krajicek made a controversial comment regarding equal pay for women in grand slam events, saying, "Eighty percent of the top 100 women are fat pigs who don't deserve equal pay." Later, he jokingly clarified his comments, remarking, "What I meant to say was that only 75 percent are fat pigs." Krajicek later showed remorse for the comment.

Coming into Wimbledon in 1996, Krajicek had never previously progressed beyond the fourth round, and had lost in the first round in the two previous years. He was a player with undoubted potential, but was not considered to be one of the strongest contenders to win the title. The clear favourite was Pete Sampras, who had won the title for the past three consecutive years. Despite being ranked within the world's top 16, Krajicek just missed out on the seedings for the tournament, but when seventh seed (and world number two) Thomas Muster pulled out shortly before the tournament due to injury, Krajicek was given Muster's place in the draw.

He beat former champion Michael Stich in the fourth round, and then met Sampras in the quarter-finals. Krajicek shocked the tennis world by defeating Sampras in straight sets 7–5, 7–6(3), 6–4, becoming the only player to beat Sampras in a Wimbledon singles match in the eight-year period from 1993 until Sampras' fourth-round loss to Roger Federer in the 2001 tournament. He then beat Australia's Jason Stoltenberg in the semi-finals, and went on to face American MaliVai Washington in the final. He won the final in straight sets 6–3, 6–4, 6–3 to become the first Dutchman to win Wimbledon.

Krajicek's victory over Sampras proved to be no fluke. He amassed a 6–4 record against the American player.

In 1998, Krajicek was in the Wimbledon semi-finals again, where he lost to Goran Ivanišević in a marathon match 6–3, 6–4, 5–7, 6–7, 15-13. His final attempt at winning a second Wimbledon title was in 2002, when he lost in the quarter-finals to Xavier Malisse.

At the 1999 U.S. Open, Krajicek lost a quarterfinal matchup to Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Despite the loss, Krajicek set several "most aces" records that day. In 2000 Krajicek was awarded the ATP Arthur Ashe Humanitarian award for his efforts to help youth in his home country. He was named ATP Comeback Player of the Year in 2002.

Krajicek retired from the professional tour in 2003. During his career, he won 17 singles titles and 3 doubles titles. His career-high singles ranking was world number 4 in 1999.

Since retiring from the ATP circuit, Krajicek runs The Richard Krajicek Foundation which builds sports facilities for children in Holland's inner-city areas. In 2004 Krajicek became the tournament director of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.

In 2005, he published a book on tennis called 'Fast Balls' (Dutch: 'Harde Ballen').

Career statistics

Grand Slam finals

Singles

Wins (1)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1996	Wimbledon	MaliVai Washington	6–3, 6–4, 6–3

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

Masters Series finals

Singles

Wins (2)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1998	Stuttgart	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	6–4, 6–3, 6–3
1999	Key Biscane	Sébastien Grosjean	4–6, 6–1, 6–2, 7–5

Runner-ups (4)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1996	Rome	Thomas Muster	6–2, 6–4, 3–6, 6–3
1997	Stuttgart	Petr Korda	7–6, 6–2, 6–4
1998	Toronto	Patrick Rafter	7–6, 6–4
1999	Stuttgart	Thomas Enqvist	6–1, 6–4, 5–7, 7–5

Career finals

Singles

Wins (17)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1.	8 April 1991	Hong Kong	Hard	Wally Masur	6–2, 3–6, 6–3
2.	10 August 1992	Los Angeles	Hard	Mark Woodforde	6–4, 2–6, 6–4
3.	16 November 1992	Antwerp, Belgium	Carpet	Mark Woodforde	6–2, 6–2
4.	9 August 1993	Los Angeles	Hard	Michael Chang	0–6, 7–6(3), 7–6(5)
5.	11 April 1994	Barcelona, Spain	Clay	Carlos Costa	6–4, 7–6(6), 6–2
6.	13 June 1994	Rosmalen, Netherlands	Grass	Karsten Braasch	6–3, 6–4
7.	10 October 1994	Sydney Indoor, Australia	Hard (i)	Boris Becker	7–6(5), 7–6(7), 2–6, 6–3
8.	27 February 1995	Stuttgart, Germany	Carpet (i)	Michael Stich	7–6(4), 6–3, 6–7(6), 1–6, 6–3
9.	6 March 1995	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Carpet	Paul Haarhuis	7–6(5), 6–4
10.	8 July 1996	Wimbledon, London	Grass	MaliVai Washington	6–3, 6–4, 6–3
11.	10 March 1997	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Carpet	Daniel Vacek	7–6(4), 7–6(5)
12.	21 April 1997	Tokyo	Hard	Lionel Roux	6–2, 3–6, 6–1
13.	23 June 1997	Rosmalen, Netherlands	Grass	Guillaume Raoux	6–4, 7–6(7)
14.	16 February 1998	St. Petersburg, Russia	Carpet (i)	Marc Rosset	6–4, 7–6(5)
15.	2 November 1998	Stuttgart, Germany	Hard (i)	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	6–4, 6–3, 6–3
16.	1 March 1999	London	Carpet	Greg Rusedski	7–6(6), 6–7(5), 7–5
17.	29 March 1999	Miami, U.S.	Hard	Sébastien Grosjean	4–6, 6–1, 6–2, 7–5

Runner-ups (9)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	13 April 1992	Tokyo Outdoor	Hard	Jim Courier	6–4, 6–4, 7–6(3)
2.	22 February 1993	Stuttgart Indoor, Germany	Carpet	Michael Stich	4–6, 7–5, 7–6(4), 3–6, 7–5
3.	21 August 1995	New Haven, U.S.	Hard	Andre Agassi	3–6, 7–6(2), 6–3
4.	20 May 1996	Rome, Italy	Clay	Thomas Muster	6–2, 6–4, 3–6, 6–3
5.	5 August 1996	Los Angeles	Hard	Michael Chang	6–4, 6–3
6.	27 October 1997	Stuttgart Indoor, Germany	Carpet	Petr Korda	7–6(6), 6–2, 6–4
7.	10 August 1998	Toronto, Canada	Hard	Patrick Rafter	7–6(3), 6–4
8.	1 November 1999	Stuttgart Indoor, Germany	Carpet	Thomas Enqvist	6–1, 6–4, 5–7, 7–5
9.	19 June 2000	Halle, Germany	Grass	David Prinosil	6–3, 6–2

Bibliography

List of books written by Richard Krajicek:

• Een half jaar netpost (2003) with Tino Bakker
• Naar de top (2005)
• Harde ballen (2005)
• Honger naar de bal (2006)
• Alle ballen verzamelen (2007)

References

1. Scotsman.com News
2. An email conversation with Richard Krajicek: 'Maybe my serve and volley could give Roger trouble' - Tennis, Sport - The Independent
3. ATPtennis.com - Players - Head-to-Head
4. BBC SPORT | TENNIS | Award seals Kuerten's dream year
5. Tennis - CBSSports.com Scoreboard, Schedules, Players
6. BBC SPORT | Tennis | Grandstand: Have Your Say | Q&A: Richard Krajicek
7. "Richard Krajicek". www.nl.bol.com. bol.com. Retrieved 2007-05-31. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)

External links

• Richard Krajicek at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• {{ITF profile}} template using deprecated numeric ID.
• Richard Krajicek at the Davis Cup
• Richard Krajicek Foundation
• Krajicek Fanpage

• 1971 births
• Living people
• Dutch non-fiction writers
• Dutch tennis players
• People from Rotterdam
• Wimbledon champions
• Dutch people of Czech descent